Mariners barrel up 4 homers, but drop series opener to Dodgers
A couple hours before Monday night’s series opener in Los Angeles, Mariners manager Scott Servais detailed in his daily pregame video call with reporters how this short series could benefit his young team.
“The Dodgers have a good club, one of the better clubs in baseball, which I think is great for us,” he said. “That’s what we aspire to get to. We’ve got a little ways to go to get there, but it should be a fun series, and our guys will continue to learn from it and we’ll see where it takes us from there.”
There is still a clear gap between the Dodgers, who lead the National League West, and Seattle, in the basement of the American League West, but for much of their 11-9 loss at Dodger Stadium, the Mariners (7-17) went toe-to-toe with one of baseball’s best lineups, and that should at least inspire some confidence despite a sixth consecutive loss.
“We didn’t get the win but a lot of really positive things,” Servais said postgame.
The Mariners barreled up four homers — two from rookie Evan White, another from his fellow rookie Kyle Lewis and one more from veteran third baseman Kyle Seager — and held the lead most of the way. Five players had multi-hit games, and the Kyles put up numbers again, Lewis and Seager each finishing 3-for-4 with two RBI.
“Young guys got the momentum rolling tonight, and I think certainly the middle of our lineup, when the two Kyle’s get going, everybody kind of feeds off that, so a lot of good at-bats up and down the lineup tonight,” Servais said. “Guys continue to make adjustments. We’ve seen that the potential is in there with this group. And I think tonight’s going to go a long ways to help us be more consistent.”
For much of the game, after jumping ahead in the first and later posting a five-run third, the Mariners carried the lead.
But, the Dodgers put up a five-spot in the seventh to all but seal the win against Seattle reliever Matt Magill, who had not allowed a run in his first eight appearances entering the night.
“The Dodgers have a very deep lineup, they kind of grinded through some at-bats there in the seventh inning, and not quite enough to put them away,” Servais said.
Two singles and a walk to open the inning loaded the bases with no outs. A.J. Pollock drove in a run with a single to cut Seattle’s lead to 8-7. Magill then walked Max Muncy to push the tying run across.
Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford then turned an impressive double play on a grounder from Joc Pederson, but the go-ahead run scored and the Dodgers never again trailed.
Kike Hernandez followed up with a two-run blast that made it 11-8. It was the second inning in the game the Dodgers posted five runs.
Seattle took a 2-0 lead in the opening frame on singles from Seager and Austin Nola, but it was fleeting.
Mariners rookie starter Justin Dunn wasn’t long for his fourth start of the season. It took all of two pitches for Mookie Betts to give him a rude welcome by crushing a solo home run to left to lead off the first inning. Corey Seager then sent a fastball right back toward Dunn at nearly 100 mph, hitting Dunn in the ribs.
Dunn said postgame he was sore, but didn’t anticipate missing significant time moving forward, and did stay in the game.
“He took quite a shot,” Servais said. “I give him a ton of credit for trying to suck it up and go back out there.”
But, Dunn said he had trouble finishing his pitches after that, and after the adrenaline wore off between innings, the Dodgers unloaded five runs on him in the second after loading the bases with no outs.
Dunn hit Matt Beaty with a pitch to drive in the tying run at that point, and a base hit from Betts put the Dodgers up 3-2. Dylan Moore threw out Joc Pederson at the plate on the play to save a run.
Corey Seager followed up by launching a three-run homer three pitches later to give Los Angeles a 6-2 edge.
“I thought after the second that was enough health-wise, do the right thing, don’t really need any heroes at this point in the season and certainly with young guys you don’t want to hurt anything else,” Servais said.
The Mariners, after managing just four runs in their previous three-game series in Houston, managed to match the five-run effort by the Dodgers the following inning.
Lewis crushed a two-run homer to close the gap, and Kyle Seager immediately followed with a solo shot.
Monday also marked the first time Kyle and Corey Seager have played against each other in a Major League Baseball game.
For those keeping score on the Seager brothers in this two-game series, and the next two-game series when the Dodgers follow the Mariners to Seattle later this week, the tally after the first game is as follows:
Kyle Seager: 3-for-4 with a home run, two singles, walk, two RBI and a smirk at his younger brother as he rounded the bases.
Corey Seager: 2-for-4 with a home run, single, walk, three RBI and a smirk at his older brother as he rounded the bases.
White launched a two-run homer to right center soon after Seager’s to give the Mariners a 7-6 lead. A Kyle Seager single drove in another run in the fourth, and the lead stayed at 8-6 until the Dodgers’ overwhelming seventh.
His second homer came in the eighth on a solo shot to left to cut Los Angeles’ lead to 11-9. It was his first career multi-homer game.
Rookie reliever Anthony Misiewicz pitched a pair of scoreless innings, while Taylor Williams, Taylor Guilbeau and Brady Lail each tossed clean frames.
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 10:13 PM.
